Sunrise at Lake Mendota, 6:48, and later, around 1:30, warm sun near Lake Wingra.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"At 3:00 a.m. on the morning of November 3, with the nation still anxiously waiting to learn who its next president would be, Garfield went to bed."

"When he woke up a few hours later and was told in no uncertain terms that he had won the election and was to be the twentieth president of the United States, he was, one reporter noted with astonishment, the 'coolest man in the room.' Later that day, Garfield gave his election to the presidency little more mention in his diary than he had the progress of his oat crop a few weeks earlier. 'The news of 3 a.m.,' he wrote, 'is fully justified by the morning papers.'  In the days that followed, surrounded by celebrations and frantic plans for his administration, Garfield could not shake the feeling that the presidency would bring him only loneliness and sorrow. As he watched everything he treasured—his time with his children, his books, and his farm—abruptly disappear, he understood that the life he had known was gone. The presidency seemed to him not a great accomplishment but a 'bleak mountain' that he was obliged to ascend. Sitting down at his desk in a rare moment to himself, he tried to explain in a letter to a friend the strange sense of loss he had felt since the election. 'There is a tone of sadness running through this triumph,' he wrote, 'which I can hardly explain.'"

I'm rereading "Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President" (commission earned) to go along with the Netflix series — "Death by Lightning" — that's based on the book.

Why change the title to something factually inaccurate? Garfield once said "Assassination can no more be guarded against than death by lightning; it is best not to worry about either."

The series is very visual, conveying information only impressionistically. Great sets, costumes, actorly finesse in the delivery of short emotional lines, but there is so much more going on in the book. That's just a typical book-is-better-than-the-film observation, not a rejection of the adaptation, which is excellent.

I'm interested in the Presidents who have not wanted to be President, who have felt bad about winning. I asked Grok to list them in the order of how much they did not want to have to do it and got this:

"Painting a historic building’s uncoated masonry can trap moisture, accelerate deterioration and cause it to crack or crumble...."

"That risk of permanent damage has led to preservation standards, including the Interior Department’s, to advise keeping a property’s historic appearance as unchanged as possible and caution against new paint schemes on historic masonry unless they replicate or closely match documented historic finishes, the complaint alleges. Paint could not be removed from the EEOB’s stone facade without risking its destruction...."

From "Preservationists sue Trump over plans to paint Eisenhower building/The complaint alleges Trump’s plan would ‘permanently alter one of the most architecturally significant and historic structures in the Nation’s Capital'" (WaPo).

He's the real estate guy. He should be able to explain why adding a layer of paint to an unpainted surface is good. Whether this lawsuit can or should succeed is a different matter. I just want to know why he thinks painting is good. I understand he wants the building to be white and not the gray that it is. I don't care one way or the other. I'm just troubled by the painting of surfaces that were designed to be unpainted.

ADDED: Trump shows his pictures to Laura Ingraham who seems quite disgusted. He's really into the intense whiteness of the imagined paint and condemns gray as a color "for funerals":

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There are 3 groups where the majority approve of Trump — 2 are age groups and 1 is a racial group.

Rassmussen Reports this morning. I'll put it after the jump so you can enjoy puzzling and the surprise of being wrong about 2 of them... or maybe you won't be wrong now that I've nudged you to think twice:

"You are not ready for a woman!"

Michelle Obama says she's not making a run at the White House until the country grows up a bit. https://t.co/2f63yPvVFR

🎥: YouTube/michelleobama pic.twitter.com/RPQjmdh0bM

— TMZ (@TMZ) November 14, 2025

"Get out, drink more, and make a series of bad decisions that might pay off."

Earlier in that "Real Time" interview, not on that clip, Scott Galloway said, "We've unwittingly built an economy dependent on our ability to evolve a new species of asocial, asexual men. And what you have is Big Tech is trying to sequester people — especially young people, especially young men — from the most important thing in their life and that is relationships."

AND: Here's the "Overtime" part. Galloway brings out beers for the boys:

This topic reminds me of some thing I've quoted before — from Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals" — about the playwright Henrik Ibsen:

"The newly released documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate show that the convicted sex offender texted with a Democratic member of Congress..."

"... during a congressional hearing with Michael Cohen, and that those text messages may have influenced the congresswoman’s questions of Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer. In the texts, Epstein appeared to be watching the February 2019 hearing in real time...."

From "Epstein texted with House Democrat during Cohen hearing, documents show/Newly released documents from the convicted sex offender’s estate include text messages from him that appear to influence the lawmaker’s questions to Trump’s personal attorney at a 2019 congressional hearing" (WaPo)(gift link).

The Democratic member of Congress is Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands figure importantly in the Epstein story. Epstein had owned 2 of the islands there, Great Saint James and Little Saint James. And, "according to a settlement in a lawsuit brought against Epstein’s estate by the U.S. Virgin Islands, 'many of his crimes occurred'" on Little Saint James. And: "A 2023 Business Insider investigation showed that Epstein donated large sums of money to U.S. Virgin Islands politicians, including to Plaskett."

Sunrise — 6:55 — and midday — 12:10.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

"It’s fine for her to work, but she should not be getting other people involved. Everyone is in bed at that time of day. It’s a very sad attitude for the top leader of the country to show."

Said Yoshihiko Noda, a former prime minister, quoted in "Japan’s Leader Started a Meeting at 3 A.M. Then Came the Backlash. Sanae Takaichi drew criticism for requiring staff to work in the wee hours in a country scarred by 'death from overwork'" (NYT).

Kenji Koshio, chief executive of Shindenki, a small electronics company in the city of Kobe, wrote on his blog that troops, police officers, firefighters and medical workers were expected to work around the clock. Why not Japan’s prime minister?

Responding to the uproar over the meeting, he wrote: “Why don’t you just stop being so lame and be grateful to the people who are working hard for the people of Japan?”

Any other leaders calling meetings this early? Not just starting work themselves but imposing it on others. I found a few historical figures who did: Napoleon, Frederick the Great, Oliver Cromwell, and — in the summer when first light came early — Genghis Khan.

"It’s really hard to say that you would have a child if given X amount of money from the government, because I think that’s just not the calculus. It is a very intimate, personal decision that people make."

Said Christina Gibson-Davis, a sociology and public policy professor at Duke University, quoted in "Raising kids is too expensive, most Americans say in new survey/Seven in 10 respondents said raising children is too expensive, a notable jump from 2024, according to an annual public opinion survey on U.S. family life" (WaPo).

"WTF is going on here with Michael Wolff giving PR strategy to Jeffrey Epstein?"

Said the podcaster Brian Reed, quoted by The Guardian in "Blurred lines: how Michael Wolff aspired to be part of elite circles he wrote about/The writer who features prominently in newly released Jeffrey Epstein emails has achieved extraordinary access but faced questions about his journalistic ethics."

Wolff's attempt at an explanation: "I was engaged then in an in-depth conversation with Epstein about his relationship with Trump and this seems to be part of that conversation."

The Guardian also quotes what NYT reporter Maggie Haberman said about Wolff back in 2018 (when his Trump-bashing book "Fire and Fury" came out: "He believes in larger truths and narratives.... So he creates a narrative that is notionally true, that’s conceptually true; the details are often wrong."

Reminds me of the old Ratherism "fake but accurate."

Back to The Guardian:

"The president’s deals with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly... would appear to run counter to Mr. Kennedy’s longstanding hostility toward the weight loss drugs...."

"But neither he nor high-profile followers of the 'Make America Healthy Again' movement would be likely to risk seeming disloyal to Mr. Trump.... Mr. Kennedy was careful in the Oval Office to emphasize that obesity drugs were not a 'panacea' or a 'silver bullet.' He repeated his beliefs in ways of tackling the root causes of Americans’ ill health that include new dietary guidelines expected next month and a presidential council on physical fitness.... [In October 2024, Kennedy said] 'If we just gave good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight'.... The medications do carry side effects, most commonly gastrointestinal complaints that are rarely severe, as well as the hazards that come with losing a lot of weight through any means, like shedding muscle. And because these medications are relatively new, there is not yet data on what happens if people take them for decades. Speaking of Novo Nordisk’s product in February 2024, Mr. Kennedy said, 'The impacts of this drug are just terrible.... The moment you stop using it, you regain all the weight, and meanwhile your stomach’s been paralyzed.'"

From "Kennedy Walks a Tightrope on Trump Deal for Obesity Drugs/The weight loss medicines are proving to be a test case for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, in straddling divisions between his supporters and the president" (NYT).

In Trump's America, everyone will be thin and also constipated. What form will the greatness of Making America Great Again take if it is accomplished by thin, constipated people? I don't think it will be Trumpian — all the gold and the lavish decoration, the dancing and the good times. No, the America of the thin constipated people is pinched and bleak. I would rather see the culture that arises out of people who flourish through "good food, three meals a day."

Sunrise — 6:28, 6:42, 6:45, 6:48.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Looks terrible — until you learn that [VICTIM] is the late Virginia Giuffre, who had worked for Trump before she fell into Epstein’s clutches, and had publicly said time and again that the future president never misbehaved in the least toward her."

Writes the Editorial Board of the New York Post, in "Epstein emails: The Dems and their lapdogs with laptops cry Wolff again."

What an incredibly sleazy move, redacting the name Virginia Giuffre, as if it were to protect her, when her name has already been public, she wrote a book to get her story out, she's told us she believed Trump did nothing wrong, and she's no longer alive. It's plainly and deliberately deceptive, and it's stupid too, because the name was going to come out, as it did in less than one day.

Such an idiotic distraction. I'm happy to look at any new evidence about the Epstein story, but I don't want to waste my time on manipulations like this. I refuse to read the NYT article, "Michael Wolff, Chronicler of Elites, Provided Epstein With Advice on Trump/Mr. Wolff was enough of an insider to provide advice to Jeffrey Epstein on how to handle his dealings with Donald J. Trump." What does "enough of an insider" even mean?? Enough of a Trump hater? I made that a gift link, in case you want to figure out how straight the NYT is playing it.

"Nolan Williams, an innovative neuroscientist who developed a noninvasive brain-stimulation technique that has delivered unusually fast relief to people with treatment-resistant depression..."

"... died on Oct. 8 at his home in Northern California. He was 43. His wife, Kristin Raj, said he died by suicide. Dr. Williams himself had struggled with depression, according to two of his colleagues...."

From "Nolan Williams, Who Stimulated the Brain to Treat Depression, Dies at 43. A neuroscientist, he employed a battery of high-tech tools in devising a fast-acting therapy that targets the area of the brain where depression originates" (NYT).

"It's like a dog marking his territory. It makes me very uncomfortable."

I said out loud, watching this:

🚨 JUST IN: President Trump shows ONCE AGAIN he is the funniest president after video was released of him giving Syria's president TRUMP COLOGNE...

"The other one is for your wife. How many wives? One? With YOU guys, you never know!"

Omg, how can't you love him🤣😭 pic.twitter.com/iFrTw9AyPO

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 12, 2025

"I dreamed I was on a train, the subway kind of train where you face people sitting on the other side, and Trump was right across from me. He started reading The Gettysburg Address…."

That's what I texted Meade just now, so then I pasted the statement in Grok. Didn't ask Grok to do anything with it, certainly not to write it up into a short short story, but that's what it did:

The car rattled along the elevated track, fluorescent lights flickering like a bad motel sign. I was wedged between a guy scrolling TikTok and a woman clutching a bag of oranges. Across from me sat Donald Trump—orange as the fruit, hair defying gravity, suit somehow unwrinkled despite the heat. No Secret Service. No crowd. Just him, me, and the Address. 

Sunrise — 6:25, 6:31, 6:46, 6:50.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

And consider going out in the middle of the night to look for the Northern Lights.

"The Right would say really rough things and names ... but on the Left, it was like they want me to die or that 'We're cheering for your next stroke' ... they even have a gif where they have a stroke in your head."

🚨NEW: John Fetterman *STUNS* CNN's Dana Bash by telling her how Left crueler than Right🚨

FETTERMAN: "The Right would say really rough things and names ... but on the Left, it was like they want me to die or that 'We're cheering for your next stroke' ... they even have a gif… pic.twitter.com/iMRyVTssgs

— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) November 12, 2025

"President Donald Trump did not have the legal authority to cancel penny production unilaterally, as he has done."

"The task should have begun with Congress, not only for constitutional reasons, but for practical ones. Congressional deliberation would have facilitated solutions for the problems inherent in eliminating a coin that’s existed since 1793. Retailers want a new law that would allow them to round prices to the nearest nickel for cash transactions, which probably would have been included in penny legislation...."

Says the Editorial Board of The Washington Post, in "The penny is dead. Long live inflation. The U.S. has stopped making cents. Declining purchasing power will make us penniless."

What's so "practical" and "facilitated" about something that kept not happening? We'd have been waiting forever. At this point, the nickel needs to go too. Let Congress step up and end the nickel... and specify when and how to round. For now, we can all be glad that the beneficial and obvious step has been taken at long last. Trump haters can enjoy the additional pleasure of adding another item to the list of Unconstitutional Things Trump Has Done. 

"For all of this AI invention’s impassioned delivery, he has executed it without any notable signs of having to take in air or stop to catch his breath."

"There is also a sense of cliché, of the song going exactly where you would expect it to, although that’s harder to quantify — and as programming for AI-generated content becomes increasingly sophisticated, it’s likely to be less present as time goes on."

Writes ,Will Hodgkinson in "Times music critic: How I knew America’s top country song was really AI/Walk my Walk, by the invented country artist Breaking Rust, has topped the Billboard Country Music chart. Our critic gives his surprising verdict" (London Times).

You can listen to the song at Spotify here. I snapped it off after 14 seconds, but I can't say I'd have listened longer if it was — or I thought it was — a really country singer. 

"What is novel about Against the Machine is Kingsnorth’s account of what is at stake in the 21st century: what he calls the 'unmaking of humanity.'"

"Human biology, as he sees it, is rooted in a few basic facts: We are born to sexed bodies on a planet with finite resources, endowed with minds capable of exercising creativity and seeking wisdom, and then we die. His book attempts to demonstrate that much of today’s scientific, economic, technological, and cultural activity is predicated on an effort, sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit, to overcome these realities. He offers several examples of ideas and innovations that he believes are part of this effort: biotech for billionaires seeking immortality; state-assisted suicide for the suffering; IVF and other results of 'the technologisation of sex'; hormone therapy that allows children to change their gender; plans to geoengineer the planet and to abandon it and colonize Mars; robot 'priests' that can preside over funerals.... Kingsnorth’s most contentious claims concern his insistence that technoculture and its products—large language models, genetic engineering, and so on—share a great deal in common with progressive ideas about sex, sexuality, and gender. They all, in his telling, attempt to use technology to overcome what were once hard natural limits.... [H]e rejects assertions that 'biology is a problem to be overcome' and that the 'body is a form of oppression.'..."

I'm reading "What a Cranky New Book About Progress Gets Right/Paul Kingsnorth argues that much of today’s culture is intent on eroding what it means to be human" (The Atlantic, gift link).

"Ruth told me that a couple of decades ago her daughter was prescribed Zoloft, an S.S.R.I., at 11 by a psychiatrist..."

"... after a humiliating incident at school 'left her feeling out of sorts and anxious.'... Her daughter wound up staying on the drug for a decade, until 2011. Only over the past few years has Ruth learned, from her daughter, about the sexual side effects she still lives with and about her grief. 'Her erogenous zones don’t work,' Ruth said. 'It makes me deeply sad, because our sexuality, the pleasure we get from our bodies and our intimacy with another person, it’s such a beautiful experience; it helps us to feel not alone.' Thinking back, Ruth said, 'I have huge, terrible regret' about allowing her child to be medicated. 'I can’t believe I so easily said yes.'"

From "More Teens Are Taking Antidepressants. It Could Disrupt Their Sex Lives for Years. Research on adults who take S.S.R.I.s shows they tamp down sexual desire. Why aren’t we studying what that could mean for adolescents who take them?" (NYT).

In the comments over there, from someone who says he's a doctor: "Overmedicalizing normal variations in children will bite us in the behind."

"Mr. Epstein’s email from 2019, which claims Mr. Trump 'knew about the girls' and asked Ms. Maxwell 'to stop,' was sent to Mr. Wolff..."

"... who had recently written a tell-all book about the president. Mr. Epstein was months away from the arrest and federal charges that would send him to prison, but he was the focus of significant attention.... In his email, Mr. Epstein mentioned a victim of his sex-trafficking operation. He also mentioned Mar-a-Lago, then disputed that Mr. Trump had ever asked him to resign from the club. 'Never a member ever,' Mr. Epstein wrote...."

From "Epstein Alleged in Emails That Trump Knew of His Conduct/In a message obtained by Congress, the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein wrote that Donald J. Trump spent hours at his house with one of Mr. Epstein’s victims" (NYT).

This is the top story at the NYT home page right now.

ADDED: From the New York Post, "Epstein emails: The Dems and their lapdogs with laptops cry Wolff again."

"The largest group dedicated to 'barefoot living' in the UK has been forced to bring in strict rules after being infiltrated by people with a sexual 'foot fetish.'"

"The Facebook group, which has more than 700 members, was set up for people who spend their lives without shoes, from going to the supermarket to embarking on outdoor hikes.... '[T]his is not a foot fetish group,' adding: 'Nothing against you but it’s not that kind of group.' New rules have also been given to existing members about the sharing of photos after fears of infiltration. They include a ban on photos of 'just feet'.... 'We all know what feet look like!'"

From "Fetishists infiltrate group promoting barefoot living/Administrators of the Facebook group introduce vetting and image rules to discourage people with a sexual attraction to feet" (London Times).

"It’s a constitutional crisis with one dangerous man in control of all three branches of government...."

"We deserve better, and we can do better, and it starts with the Democratic Party winning back control of the House of Representatives.... My name is Jack Schlossberg, and I’m running for Congress to represent my home, New York’s 12th congressional district.... If you see me on the street, please say hello. If I knock on your door, I hope we can have a conversation...."

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A post shared by Jack Schlossberg (@jackuno)

ADDED: I do agree with his position on restaurants:

Jack Schlossberg’s anti-restaurant tirade is the exact deranged himbo social cause JFK’s grandson should be doing. “My friends don’t like eating dinner. Most people in the world don’t spend their lives eating dinner.” Icon pic.twitter.com/XKk8JOX6Q5

— Russell (@RussellFalcon) July 4, 2023

Sunrise — 6:30, 6:36.

Talk about what you like in the comments.

Bonus photo from Meade at 4:36 in the afternoon:

"At the level below the car deck, there is a glass sightseeing walkway. On top of one of the bridge towers there is a specialty coffeehouse...."

"... with panoramic views. The bridge has facilities for extreme sports such as bungee jumping and paragliding integrated by design..."

From the Wikipedia article for the Huajiang Canyon Bridge, the world's highest bridge, which just opened last August.

I remember the hoopla. Blogged it here. I remember a commenter saying the height is not impressive because it's measured from the bottom of a deep gorge.

I'm reading about the Huajiang Canyon Bridge today because — as Reuters reports — the a bridge has collapsed. Spectacular video:

CORRECTION: The bridge that collapsed was the Hongqi Bridge, which had no Wikipedia page. When searched for, the other bridge, Huajiang Canyon Bridge, showed up in the search. Sorry for assuming these were the same bridge!

Cheryl Hines does a fabulous job of establishing rapport with Bill Maher right at the beginning of this Club Random podcast.

I'm listening to the whole thing, but only 26 minutes in.

She's fascinatingly skillful at personal interaction... and he appreciates it. He raises the dumb subject of wearing orange — because it's "right before Halloween" — and somehow she's got him talking about women in "blood red" lingerie and how he doesn't want to be touching a woman wearing leather in the middle of the night....

They talk about Bobby and Trump too. Watch it for yourself.

"Life is not so easy. For anybody... I wanna reward the people who showed up without a lotta nonsense, without a lotta talk."

🚨 JUST IN: President Trump DOUBLES DOWN — promises to give $10,000 bonuses to Air Traffic Controllers who didn’t call out “sick” during the shutdown

Good. They deserve it.

“I’ll get [the money] from someplace.”

Don’t bet against 47. He’ll make it happen. pic.twitter.com/jo2ZbCBgGt

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 11, 2025

Where will Trump get the money to hand out $10,000 bonuses to air traffic controllers who showed up for work while the pay was not flowing?

"I don't know. I'll get it from someplace. I always get the money from someplace."

Sunrise with steam fog — 6:39, 6:48, 6:51, 6:52.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

Bonus western view — at 6:47 — with a special pinkness of its own:

"As people increasingly turn to A.I. chat tools as confidants, therapists and advisers, we urgently need a new form of legal protection that would safeguard most private communications..."

"...between people and A.I. chatbots. I call it 'A.I. interaction privilege.'... At present, most digital interactions fall under the Third-Party Doctrine, which holds that information voluntarily disclosed to other parties — or stored on a company’s servers — carries 'no legitimate expectation of privacy.' This doctrine allows government access to much online behavior (such as Google search histories) without a warrant.... To leave these conversations legally unprotected is to invite a regime where citizens must fear that their digital introspection could someday be used against them. Private thought — whether spoken to a lawyer, a therapist or a machine — must remain free from the fear of state intrusion."

Writes the historian Nils Gilman, in "If You Tell ChatGPT Your Secrets, Will They Be Kept Safe?" (NYT).

"We’re spending a lot of money, so I cannot set forth a plan right now that takes money out of a system that relies on the fares of the buses and the subways...."

Said NY Governor Kathy Hochul, quoted in "Hochul slams brakes on Zohran Mamdani’s free NYC bus plan: ‘Takes money out of a system that relies on fares'" (NY Post).

The cautious bus route outlined by Hochul is the latest split the moderate Democratic governor has had with Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, since she endorsed him in September.... [B]ut she has balked at much of his actual agenda — notably, taxing the rich to pay for $10 billion in freebies such as no-cost child care and buses without fares. 

The governor’s guarded approach could spell problems for Mamdani, as his grand plans largely require support from both Hochul and lawmakers in Albany.... 

Mamdani’s supporters have taken notice of Hochul’s hesitancy and twice recently chanted “Tax the rich”at her, clearly irking the governor. “The more you push me, the more I’m not going to do what you want,” Hochul told a SOMOS crowd....

"This is an embarrassing deal, a deal to basically settle for nothing. It’s particularly galling..."

"... since it comes only days after Democrats crushed Republicans in races across the country. Election Day not only showed that Democrats had payed [sic] no price for the shutdown. It also confirmed the already abundant evidence that it has been deeply damaging for Donald Trump. But even with all this, I think the overall situation and outcome is basically fine [because]... Democrats fought. They held out for 40 days.... And that’s a big deal... It’s a big change in the direction of the fight we need in the years to come that just didn’t go far enough. Yet."

Writes Josh Marshall, in "A Quick Take on Team Cave's Big Win."

"The deference and servility to [Ghislaine] Maxwell have reached such preposterous levels that one of the top officials at the facility has complained that he is 'sick of having to be Maxwell’s bitch.'"

Says a letter to Trump from Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, quoted in "Democrats reveal whistleblower details of Ghislaine Maxwell prison 'luxuries'/In a letter to the president, House Democrats say Maxwell’s treatment as she prepares a clemency request makes the convicted sex offender look like a 'guest at a Trump hotel'" (MSNBC).

What are these luxuries? We're told there are "customized meals personally delivered to her cell, after-hours time in a private exercise area and access to a service puppy.... private meetings with visitors arranged by the warden, complete with snacks...." 

"Still, the justices’ consideration of Ms. Davis’s petition had set off alarms among gay Americans, who were already reeling from the Trump administration’s targeting of programs and funding that benefit L.G.B.T.Q. individuals."

"Gay Americans and their allies had been on alert since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority eliminated the nationwide right to abortion after 50 years, showing a willingness to undo longstanding legal precedent. In that decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote separately to urge reconsideration of the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which recognized gay marriage nationwide."

From "Supreme Court Denies Request to Revisit Same-Sex Marriage Decision/Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, had asked the court to reconsider its landmark 2015 opinion" (NYT).

I'm glad to see this precedent left alone. There's so much reliance on it.

"I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom."

Writes Mark L. Wolf, 78, who has been on senior status as a federal judge since 2013. He's stating a downside of being a judge.Wolf's column, in The Atlantic, is called "Why I Am Resigning/A federal judge explains his reasoning for leaving the bench" (gift link). It begins:

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed me as a federal judge. I was 38 years old. At the time, I looked forward to serving for the rest of my life. However, I resigned Friday, relinquishing that lifetime appointment.... When I became a senior judge in 2013, my successor was appointed, so my resignation will not create a vacancy to be filled by the president. 

Despite being a Reagan judge at the time of appointment, Wolf handed the power to appoint the next judge to President Obama. Wolf is sloughing off senior status to gain a power for himself, the power to speak freely. And what he wants to talk about is Trump's "assault on the rule of law." He ends the column by quoting RFK Sr. — "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope" — and the poet Seamus Heaney — the “longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme.”

ADDED: For more detail on that Seamus Heaney line, here's Bill Clinton:

"If it was mentioned that ‘identity’ is aware of this or ‘identity’ say they’re looking at it — that was enough to stop anybody else going anywhere near it."

Said Cath Leng, quoted in "'I was forced out of BBC News over gender critical views'/Cath Leng claims younger LGBT reporters acted as ‘gatekeepers’ on trans stories and gender critical coverage was censored" (London Times).

"Identity" refers to the "learning and identity" desk, which acted as "gatekeepers" on trans stories according to Leng, who said "These people were treated as experts simply because they were believers in the idea of gender identity. The reason they were considered to have expertise is of course because nobody else understands it. So they’re allowed to spout this gobbledegook and they’re treated as experts when it comes to which language to use."

When one of her gender critical pitches was accepted at a news meeting because it was a “great story”, Leng said that fellow journalists were so fearful they could only express support in secret. She said: “Somebody who was present slipped me a card as we were all leaving this session. It just said on the back, ‘you’re right, keep going’. She felt she couldn’t tell me directly. It was like a secret, masonic handshake.”..

In other BBC news: "BBC in crisis: why did Tim Davie and Deborah Turness resign? Director general and head of news quit amid accusations of bias over Trump and trans issues at broadcaster" (The Guardian).

"Six Takeaways From the Senate Deal to End the Shutdown."

Headline at the NYT. Free-access link: here. The 6 things (paraphrased unless in quotes):

1. Democrats lost their unity.

2. The health care matter was left out.

3. "Trump’s pressure tactics worked.... The group of people affected by the shutdown grew with each week" — from the thousands of federal workers going without pay to the millions who expected food-buying assistance and the millions who were hoping to travel by plane.

4. Trump did not participate in talks with Democratic Party leaders. He was, conspicuously, at an NFL game when the deal coalesced last night.

5. Republican leaders Mike Johnson and John Thune also withheld participation.

6. Democrats at least have "some concessions in their fight against the Trump administration’s concerted effort to reconfigure and diminish the federal government." That's not about health care. It's about rehiring those who were laid off during the shutdown and barring further layoffs until January 30th.

ADDED: Will Trump gloat? Should he? He hasn't put anything up on Truth Social since his display — 13 hours ago — of Air Force One flying over the football stadium. And at X, 9 hours ago:

 

The most EPIC flyover of the season 🇺🇸🦅 pic.twitter.com/WYJtg7AHcW

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 10, 2025

Sunrise — at 6:37 — with a blustery wind that almost blew my iPhone out of my hand.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"In your last lie detector test, you said you think everyone hates you. Do you still believe that?"/"Yes."

"Why?"/"I don't know why anybody wouldn't hate me. I can't think of one reason. I mean, my kids, 'cause they have no other option. I'm their only mother.... I don't think they hate me. Yet."

Scroll to 7:22 for the quoted text.

"Zoran Momani has been elected.... So what?... What's the big deal? Obviously he was going to win.... You can just leave...."

"But there are people out there who... are finding it increasingly difficult to afford New York City. Those people — the paint-by-numbers/pin a ribbon on me/I did all of the right things/I have all of the right views/I post all of the right things on social media.... They're normies.... They're just boring and vapid and surface and dull and pointless.... and their concerns are so small and petty.... That is the coalition that Zoran has. He has a coalition of angry, boring, mediocre people that have done the right things and have gotten very little for it....

"Sure, even I get caught up in the romantic notion that a life exists beyond the grueling 9-to-5 of our capitalist society. A simple life, baking bread and caring for children..."

"... bestows a sense of comfort. But the promise of a tradwife is nothing more than fiction. And the idea of a womanhood that’s 'natural' has been completely determined by a white, male-centric society. Tradwife content allows young women to shrug off any sense of self-blame or responsibility for their role in society.... Tradwives get so caught up in their echo chambers that protecting the nuclear family seems like safeguarding existence itself, and they become completely insulated from what they deem 'unnatural': queerness, diversity, difference of thought. Without this exposure, they are unable to strengthen their sense of empathy.... They become so segregated from the rest of the world that they begin to believe that they will never achieve more—should not achieve more—than the conservative 'natural' role of womanhood.... Starting an article with the headline 'Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?' does nothing more than appeal to those who try to keep lower-income women oppressed and drive young people into a tradwife future that keeps them caged."

Said Kenneal Patterson, one of the participants in a Vanity Fair conversation called "Women of Vanity Fair Consider Ross Douthat’s Question: Did Women Ruin the Workplace? Today, The New York Times published a conversation between the conservative columnist and two writers about just how bad ladies have screwed up corporate culture with their presence. We felt we should engage."

"Today" was a few days ago. We talked about the Ross Douthat piece here, 3 days ago (and that post has a gift link to the provocatively titled Douthat conversation).

"Capes that flowed into skirts, coats on top of denim jackets and socks worn over tights.... layers were bright sweaters or cozy scarves... many people were covered up [or] wearing shorts, high-slit skirts or other layers...."

In case you want to feel as though it will be perfectly fashionable to throw on as many oversized comfortable layers of whatever you happen to find in your closet, look at the photographs at "Layers Upon Layers of Lively Fall Fashion/Capes that flowed into skirts, coats on top of denim jackets, socks over tights — and don’t forget scarves and sweaters" (NYT)(free-access link).

The article is by Simbarashe Cha, who works in the tradition of the much-missed Bill Cunningham. Scanning the photographs, I get the feeling he was working on sets that didn't pan out. One unrealized set is "twins" (2 individuals out and about while dressed somewhat like each other). Another is the double breasted jacket. Those pictures are tucked into fashion's biggest catch-all: layers.

I was reminded of the famous advice attributed to Coco Chanel: 

"And I’m never going to call somebody fat because they’re fat. I’m going to call you fat if you called me Hitler."

"And the best part about that is it hurts them. It hurts them more than if they were to call me Hitler because they have to look in the mirror every day. I know I’m not Hitler. They know they’re fat."

Said Greg Gutfeld, in "The Interview/Fox News Wanted Greg Gutfeld to Do This Interview. He Wasn’t So Sure" (NYT).